[cwoodward]

Ian
The Peninsula Hotel was never on the waterfront.
Your grandmothers memory of Peninsula Hotel is not correct but of course there were and are terrific views of the harbour from its upper floors.
When the the hotel opened its doors on 11 December 1928 between it and the water were a rail line, station and wharves where large vessels were unloaded.
I may not be 100% percent correct but I do believe that the harbour on Kowloon side has not been narrowed at this point and of course there was an agreement and a planning restriction on any further narrowing of the harbour at its narrower points and of course is generally very much wider other than at the short narrow point.
Incidentally the harbour is very very much cleaner than in your grandmothers day and has become progressively cleaner over the 50 years that I have been here to the point
where I now see many fishing (and catching decent size fish) from the around the Star ferry piers in Central.

[cwoodward]

Just to put some perspective on the size reduction of Victoria Harbour (so called since 1850) its overall size has reduced by less than 14% in the ensuing years.

[IanFromHKG]

Well, she was an elderly lady when she told me the story, cwoodward, so…! Perhaps it was that there was no building between the Pen and the waterfront?

HK waters generally are so much cleaner than when we arrived although, of course, Victoria Harbour did go through a period where it was so dirty that swimming was banned on safety grounds. And who can forget the smell of Kai Tak Nullah when coming in to land? LOL

[cwoodward]

The subject of the HK governments treatment of infected hamsters (that seems to have little or nothing to do with business travel) was mentioned in this thread in a negative way presumably as a stick with which to illustrate how the Hong Kong environment was detreating.
The writer may perhaps be interested in a recent article published in the Lancet that shows the following was the situation on which the government was compelled to act.
The hamsters were imported from Holland and were infected when imported. Three pet shop workers caught the virus from the hamsters and past it to others. That the Hong Kong governments quick action was to be applauded.
The government is complementing all of the pet shop owners to the tune of $30,000 and any of the publics pets surrendered for testing were returned to there owners after testing negative.
Is it not time that this forum reverted to posting on subjects relating to business travel and stops the politically motivated Hong Kong bashing by participants that should know better.

[tomyam42]

How many can remember landing or taking off on the old runway at Kai Tak? I don’t mean the new runway that stuck out into Kowloon Bay, rather the main one for landing which was an extension of Argyll Street. One used to fly down Argyll Street with Kadoorie Hill to one’s left and KGV to the right. To depart the engines were run up to maximum power with the brakes on, brakes released and pick up speed as quickly as possible running towards Choi Hung, lift off then steep bank right to avoid Anderson’s Quarry and head for Lei Yue Mun.

When I arrived we descended the steps from the aircraft, shook hands with greeters and strolled over to the sea wall where we boarded a launch to take us to Queen’s Pier and on to the Repulse Bay Hotel. Others went to the Pen which had no buildings between it and the seafront. The cargo wharves were on the west on the peninsula, subsequently redeveloped as Harbour City. Since then there has been some reclamation and significant construction to the south of the Pen: hotels to the east, space museum, cultural centre and redeveloped public pier across the road, and redeveloped Star Ferry piers to the west where the walla-wallas used to wait.

On Hong Kong Island the seafront used to be directly across the north side of Connaught Road which was much narrower than today. Chater Gardens was the cricket pitch and the Hong Kong Club was an old colonial style building to its north side.

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Woodpecker, IanFromHKG, cwoodward, Tom Otley

[cwoodward]

A fantastic memory of HK in the late fifties?
I first landed in HK in the sixties on the bit that sticks out into the sea
Thank you posting

[tomyam42]

1955.

[MartynSinclair]

https://webb-site.com/dbpub/hkpax.asp?t=0&p=1&f=0

I came across the attached which provides data on number of arrivals and departures in and out of HKG on a daily basis over the past couple of years. You can change the passenger type, point of entry and frequency. Seeing the non HKG residents “other passengers” on a daily basis, scroll down for the actual numerical number, makes you realise how closed HKG is…. to non residents.

[cwoodward]

As Martyn mentions above, from 25th January non HK residence from the following countries cannot until further notice enter Hong Kong.
Fully vaccinated passengers from countries not listed below are allowed to enter but must quarantine for 14 days in a government designated hotel.

HK is at the moment experience its worst (by far) ever virus outbreak with 340 cases reported yesterday. Fortunately no deaths from the virus have been reported for the past 7 months here an very few from the current outbreak need hospitalisation. If the government can in the next days get the current outbreak under control the entry situation should revert that in force prior to 25th January where vaccinated passengers from UK -most of Europe-Australasia-North America and most of Asia (not the sub continent) are allowed once more to transit or enter.

LIST FROM CATHAY WEB SITE TODAY : Passengers who have stayed in or transited through the following countries in the past 21 days: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bonaire, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Estonia, Eswatini, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar , Namibia, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Martin (French part), Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, St Kitts & Nevis, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia or Zimbabwe.

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Tom Otley

[AMcWhirter]

This historical photo may bring back memories for some readers.

The two photos I find of interest is a) the PAL Viscount and b) the TG Caravelle in the background of the lower right photo.

TG, as I have mentioned previously, was mentored by SAS until the mid-1970s. The Carevelle’s livery is pure SAS (except for the word “Thai”) complete with the Viking longboat along the fuselage.

Hong Kong Kai Tak was a bit different back in the sixties.
© See photos. pic.twitter.com/vAVAgNSdyC

— Just Airliners (@AusterityAirli1) February 5, 2022

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cwoodward

[cwoodward]

The attached image is of a BOAC Shorts Sandringham S25 landing passenger’s and crew in Hong Kong in 1949. The girl was Angelina DaSilva (likely she was Macanese) the first Asian hostess employed by BOAC.
This aircraft had flown down from Shanghai and interesting it was flying under the banner of Hong Kong Airways that was a wholly owned subsidiary of BOAC. The aircraft would fly onwards to Japan and then back to Shanghai and then possibly onwards to London making Hong Kong Airway one of the early long haul operators out of Asia to the UK
It seem that were 3 BOAC Sandringham flying boats stationed in HK at the time an they also flew routes to Manila and Singapore all under the Hong Kong Airways banner.

The aircraft in the image was eventually in 1953 sold to Qantas and operated out Sydney’s the Rose Bay base which many years later (1971) I lived opposite for a time and was still operational. I believe that this aircraft (or one of its sisters)was still flying out of the Rose Bay for Qantas up to 1974

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AMcWhirter, GivingupBA, IanFromHKG

[AMcWhirter]

According to this tweet Finnair has now cancelled all HKG flights until the end of March.

⚠️🇫🇮🛫🇭🇰🛬

Finnair have cancelled all flights to and from Hong Kong until the end of March, citing "restrictions set by the authorities of Hong Kong". pic.twitter.com/8AStHPELCI

— 🇭🇰 5th 👋 Aaron (@tripperhead) February 9, 2022

[Tom Otley]

I was speaking with Finnair’s CEO this lunchtime, and he said that Finnair was doing well on cargo flights to Hong Kong so I imagine this is passenger flights rather than ‘all’.

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cwoodward

[TominScotland]

A very sobering piece which suggests that Hong Kong will remain closed for some considerable time…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/18/no-light-at-the-end-how-hong-kongs-covid-response-went-so-wrong

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TimothyTanks

[IanFromHKG]

I am a bit surprised about the wording of Finnair’s announcement. To my knowledge, the authorities here (and as readers will know I don’t often find myself defending the HK government) have not specifically “set restrictions for Finnair flights to/from Hong Kong until the end of March”, phrasing which implies that the restrictions apply only to Finnair.

Having said that, Finnair are notorious for trying to dodge their EU261 obligations, so I cannot help but wonder whether their wording is designed to deter claims on the basis that the cancellation is outside their operational control and therefore not eligible for EU261 compensation.

I know from personal experience that Finnair are perfectly prepared to lie to customers about the real reason for cancellations and deny liability – they’ve been completely unscrupulous with my family in this regard on more than one occasion. In my last dispute with them I did a lot of research and was able, quite comprehensively, to prove that they were lying; and when I sent the evidence I had gathered to them they immediately caved and paid out the entire claim with interest. The time it took me to do that was out of all proportion to the claim but it was a point of principle for me. Ironically we had earlier made a settlement proposal which would have cost them virtually nothing in cash terms (costs of the Small Claims Tribunal case – I don’t recall how much exactly but it would have been a two-figure sum in sterling – and guaranteed upgrade) which Finnair rejected. More fool them.

Entertainingly, part of their argument was that their position was backed up by European Commission guidance, even though the guidance in question in fact completely undermined their case and supported mine. The guidance can be found here. Paragraph 3.4 is of particular relevance.

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Polly, cwoodward

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